Monday, November 28, 2011

Over at Gameranx, I had a piece published on the slight disappointment I felt about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The idea that Hollywoodizing of existing properties dulls their edginess seems so obvious that I actually struggled a bit with coming up with an example. V For Vendetta proved a superb one in the end, but I always felt like I was missing something really obvious. Ian Cheong, editor at Gameranx, has been actively recruiting me through Twitter, and his persistence has won him a few upcoming Skyrim articles for the site, so keep an eye out for those.

I have, in the past, taken some issue with the term "game journalist" to describe my writing about games. I'm a critic specifically, or a writer generally, but if I'm only doing a bit of research on Wikipedia and not interviewing people, I really wouldn't call myself a journalist. At least, I wouldn't have until I did this piece on designers of classic games for Gamasutra.

My work at The AV Club continues, and it's actually been a fairly dense month for television, though less so for book reviews. One of the most random TV shows I reviewed was Knights Of Mayhem, a reality show on the would-be sports stars of professional jousting.

But perhaps the most exciting thing I did there was a Gateway To Geekery on Discworld author Terry Pratchett, which involved reading five Pratchett books in a week, which was a lot of fun. So if you or someone you know might like Discworld but was scared to start, here's the article for you.

Moving forward, I have a couple of Mass Effect pieces in the pipeline at some different sites, which is exciting, as it's one of the more comment-worthy game series around these days. It's also Best Of list time, and I'll have the chance to put together a few of those.

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Hey all, I haven't been using this blog for much, so I figured I'd use at least to point you at other things I've done recently (and give a somewhat permanent record to them).

I made my front-page debut at The AV Club with this piece about the problems networks have with superhero shows. This was a fairly difficult piece to wrangle, but after putting up with No Ordinary Family and The Cape last year, it was pretty inevitable.

I've continued reviewing the middling but still potentially good Terra Nova there, along with the usually-charming, always-slight American Dad. More excitingly, my TV Club Classic reviews of Veronica Mars are back.

I also reviewed Neal Stephenson's Reamde, which both a very good book and an exciting opportunity for me to review a book from the King of All Nerds at a major website.

This review of Might & Magic Heroes VI may be my last game review at the AV Club for a while - there's lots of people who want to review games there, and...

...I've also started doing game reviews at Paste Magazine, including this one of Bit.Trip.Complete and this one of Red Orchestra II. I'm quite happen with both of them, as the editorial freedom there and longer word count gave me the opportunity to really delve into what made each of the games interesting.